November, 28 2018, 11:00pm EDT
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Amnesty International Launches World's Biggest Human Rights Campaign
WASHINGTON
Women human rights defenders around the world are facing unprecedented levels of abuse, intimidation and violence, said Amnesty International as it launched its global Write for Rights campaign, in a bid to shine a spotlight on brave women who have been harassed, jailed, tortured or even killed for their human rights work.
Women continue to face multiple forms of discrimination, targeted because of their gender and other characteristics, as well as for their human rights work. However, women refuse to stay silent and have been at the forefront of the battle for human rights in 2018.
"Across the world, women are leading the resistance. We want to honour the role of women who challenge power, stand up for what is right and lead the charge for change," said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
"Their position as leaders in their communities stands in contrast to the huge challenges they have overcome to get there.
"This year, Write for Rights, Amnesty's global letter-writing campaign, champions women who are challenging bad laws, corrupt practices, violent policing and so much more. They're the leaders we need to see more of in a world moving ever further towards extremism. By joining them, you can help tip the balance towards equality, freedom and justice."
Write for Rights 2018 will see Amnesty International supporters stand in solidarity with women human rights defenders from Brazil, Egypt, India, Iran, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, South Africa, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Among the cases are calls for justice for Marielle Franco, a Brazilian human rights activist and elected councillor who was shot dead in her car eight months ago; Atena Daemi, an Iranian activist, who is serving a seven-year prison sentence for speaking out against the death penalty; and Nonhle Mbuthuma, from South Africa, who has faced deaths threats, for speaking out against a mining company which wants to mine titanium on her ancestral land.
"We want to support these women and their families to overcome the risks and challenges they face for defending human rights. We want to see a world in which all women can raise their voice and stand up against injustice without fear, and where they're no longer targeted for who they are," said Kumi Naidoo. "It's time to stand together, seek justice and show our support. Together we can make change happen."
Every year, supporters across the globe write millions of letters for those whose human rights are being attacked. As well as sending messages of solidarity, Amnesty International supporters can write letters to people in power, calling on them to protect women human rights defenders.
Amnesty International's first Write for Rights campaign took place 16 years ago. Since then, millions of actions have been taken by activists around the world. Every year, these actions lead to real change. People wrongfully imprisoned are released, torturers are brought to justice, and people in prison are treated more humanely.
Receiving a letter can also give people hope in the most desperate of times. Last year, messages to Shackelia Jackson in Jamaica made a huge difference. Shackelia continues to demand justice for her brother Nakiea, who was killed by police for no reason. This tragedy led her to become a leader in the battle against unlawful killings committed by the police inJamaica.
"Writing a letter to someone might seem like such a small and simple act of kindness. But its effect can be enormous," said Shackelia.
"The letters reminded me of the importance of my work and showed my family and community that we are not alone - it has made our personal struggle for justice a global struggle. And the sheer volume of letters received will also show our government that people from around the world are watching them, and that they are waiting for justice to be served.
Amnesty International is calling on people to show their support to people, groups and communities around the world who are claiming their rights. This year, those who Amnesty supporters will stand in solidarity with include:
Marielle Franco, Brazil
Marielle Franco fought fearlessly for a fairer Rio de Janeiro. She stood up for black women, LGBTI people and young people, and condemned unlawful killings by police. But then she was silenced, shot to death in her car. It's part of a pattern in Brazil, where at least 70 human rights defenders were killed in 2017.
Amal Fathy, Egypt
Amal posted a video online, speaking about her experience of sexual harassment and criticizing the Egyptian authorities for neglecting women's rights. Now she's been sentenced to two years in prison for "spreading false news" - and still faces further charges.
Pavitri Manjhi, India
Pavitri is part of an Adivasi Indigenous community who are being forced to sell their land to make way for two power plants. As a village leader, she helped people file nearly 100 formal complaints against the companies involved. Now she faces threats from local 'strongmen' in an attempt to force her to withdraw the complaints.
Sengwer Indigenous People, Kenya
The Sengwer people in Kenya have a deep, centuries-old bond with the Embobut Forest. But this Indigenous community of beekeepers and cattle herders is being violently evicted by the Kenyan government. Forest guards have burned homes and forced thousands off their ancestral land, but the Sengwer are determined to resist.
Atena Daemi, Iran
Atena dreamt of an end to the death penalty in Iran. She wrote Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts, handed out leaflets, and joined peaceful protests. These actions were used as "evidence" to sentence her to seven years in prison. Her trial took just 15 minutes and she's faced violence and degrading treatment behind bars.
Awad, Sudan
Awad is a Sudanese human rights defender facing harassment and threats for her work. She is a refugee who fled Sudan in 2012 and is currently seeking resettlement in the U.S. but is stuck in limbo for years as the Trump administration's bans and policies targeting refugees, especially from Muslim majority countries, hurts the U.S. refugee resettlement program.
Gulzar Duishenova, Kyrgyzstan
In 2002, Gulzar lost movement in her legs after a car accident. She made it her life's mission to ensure persons with disabilities can live with dignity and move around freely. But she faces daily discrimination in a society where women aren't meant to speak out and persons with disabilities are seen as "invalids".
Nawal Benaissa, Morocco
Nawal speaks out to improve the situation of people living in her region, where many feel forgotten by their government. She's been on peaceful protests and campaigned on social media for social justice and better social healthcare services. But she's been harassed by the Moroccan authorities and was given a 10-month suspended sentence for "inciting to commit an offence".
Nonhle Mbuthuma, South Africa
Nonhle is leading the fight for her community against a mining company which wants to mine titanium on their ancestral land. But she's being harassed and threatened, and has even survived an attempt to kill her. Someone is trying to silence her, but she won't back down: "When you take my land, you take my identity."
Vitalina Koval, Ukraine
Vitalina works hard to support local LGBTI people in her home city, Uzhgorod. But she was violently attacked after organizing a peaceful protest on International Women's Day 2018. The assault is just part of a wider surge in intimidation by anti-rights groups in Ukraine. Vitalina and other human rights defenders won't give in to fear, so let's stand with them.
Geraldine Chacon, Venezuela
Geraldine always dreamed of defending others. That's why she helps empower young people in her home city to stand up for their rights. But she's being hounded by the authorities just for trying to make her country a better place. They imprisoned her for four months and banned her from leaving the country simply for defending human rights. Her case still isn't closed so she could be arrested again at any moment, with no warning.
About Write For Rights:
Every year, Amnesty International runs Write for Rights, a campaign that encourages supporters around the world to write messages of solidarity to people whose rights have been violated just because they dared to stand up against injustice. Supporters are also invited to write letters to the authorities on behalf of these courageous individuals. To find out more or to write a letter, visit: https://write.amnestyusa.org/
This statement is available at: https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/amnesty-international-launches-worlds-biggest-human-rights-campaign/
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
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Critics Warn Manchin-Barrasso Permitting Bill 'Is Taken Straight From Project 2025'
"You thought Project 2025 was just a threat after the election? It's actually happening *right now,*" said one climate campaigner.
Jul 26, 2024
Climate and environmental defenders on this week implored U.S. senators to block a permitting reform bill introduced this week by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso that one campaigner linked to Project 2025, a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right overhaul of the federal government.
Common Dreamsreported Monday that Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Barrasso (R-Wyo.)—respectively the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee—introduced the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) noted that although the proposal "includes several positive reforms for the accelerated development of transmission projects," it also advocates "limiting opportunities for communities to challenge projects, loosening oversight for drilling and mining projects, extending drilling permits and fast-tracking [liquified natural gas] permits, and several other provisions friendly to fossil fuel giants."
"This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
These are nearly identical policies to what's proposed in Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership. The plan, which was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, calls for "unleashing all of America's energy resources," including by ending federal restrictions on fossil fuel drilling on public lands; limiting investments in renewable energy; and rolling back environmental permitting restrictions for new oil, gas, and coal projects, including power plants.
While Manchin has been trying—and failing—to pass fossil fuel-friendly permitting reform legislation for years, Brett Hartl, director of public affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that his "Frankenstein legislation is taken straight from Project 2025, and it's the biggest giveaway in decades to the fossil fuel industry."
Hartl said the bill "deprives communities of the power to defend themselves and gives that power to Big Oil by making it harder for communities to challenge polluting projects in court," and "prioritizes the profits of coal barons over public health."
"And it mandates oil and gas extraction in our oceans," he continued. "The insignificant crumbs thrown at renewable energy do nothing to address the climate emergency."
"Monday was the hottest day in recorded history," Hartl noted. "It's shocking that as the climate emergency continues to break records around us, the Senate continues to fast-track the fossil fuel expansion that is killing us. This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
Hartl added that "to preserve a livable planet," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "must squash this legislation now."
Manchin—who has said this will be his last term in office—has been a steadfast supporter of the fossil fuel industry, partly because his family owns a coal company. The senator says his permitting reform bill "will advance American energy once again to bring down prices, create domestic jobs, and allow us to continue in our role as a global energy leader."
However, Allie Rosenbluth, Oil Change International's U.S. manager, warned Thursday that "this bill is yet another dangerous attempt by Sen. Manchin to line the pockets of his fossil fuel donors, sacrificing communities and our climate along the way."
"Don't be fooled: The Energy Permitting Reform Act is another dirty deal to fast-track fossil fuels above all else," she continued. "It would unleash more drilling on federal lands and waters, unnecessarily rush the review of proposed oil and gas export projects, and lift the Biden administration's pause on new LNG exports."
"We urge Congress to reject this proposal and commit to action that protects frontline communities from the impacts of fossil fuel development and the climate crisis," Rosenbluth added.
"Don't be fooled: The Energy Permitting Reform Act is another dirty deal to fast-track fossil fuels above all else."
NRDC managing director of government affairs Alexandra Adams said Wednesday that "this bill is a giveaway for the oil and gas industry that will ramp up drilling and environmental destruction at a time when we need to be putting a hard stop to fossil fuels."
"We cannot afford to roll back so many of our bedrock environmental and community legal protections and offer a blank check to the oil and gas industry," she stressed. "We need new solutions for permitting if we are going to meet our clean energy potential and address the climate challenge. But this is not it."
"This bill would altogether be a leap backward on climate, health, and justice if passed into law," Adams added. "The Senate should reject it and look toward alternative solutions already being considered."
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'Nothing To Eat': War-Torn Sudan Faces Mass Famine as Military Delays Aid
Both parties in Sudan's civil war are to blame for a looming mass famine, experts say, and the military's blocking of U.N. aid at a border crossing with Chad exacerbates the problem.
Jul 26, 2024
Sudan's military is blocking United Nations aid trucks from entering at a key border crossing, causing severe disruptions in aid in a country that experts fear may be on the brink of one of the worst famines the world has seen in decades, The New York Timesreported Friday.
The border city of Adré in eastern Chad is the main international crossing into the Darfur region of Sudan, but the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the state's official military, which is engaged in a civil war with a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has refused to issue permits for U.N. trucks to enter there, as it's an RSF-controlled area.
U.S. and international officials have issued increasingly alarmed calls for steady aid access to help feed the millions of severely malnourished people in Darfur and other areas of Sudan.
Last week, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the U.N., said that the SAF's obstruction of the border was "completely unacceptable."
Both warring parties in Sudan continue to perpetrate brazen atrocities, including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. This piece focuses on the SAF's ongoing obstruction of essential aid. The situation is catastrophic. The policy is criminal. https://t.co/FKhqQh3EI9.
— Tom Dannenbaum (@tomdannenbaum) July 26, 2024
The Sudanese who've made it out of the country and into Adré reported dire and unsafe conditions in their home country.
"We had nothing to eat," Bahja Muhakar, a Sudenese mother of three, told the Times after she crossed into Chad, following a harrowing six-day journey from Al-Fashir, a major city in Darfur. She said the family often had to live off of one shared pancake per day.
Another mother, Dahabaya Ibet, said that her 20-month-old boy had to bear witness to his grandfather being shot and killed in front of his eyes when the family home in Darfur was attacked by gunmen late last year.
Now the mothers and their families are refugees in Adré, where 200,000 Sudanese are living in an overcrowded, under-resourced transit camp.
In addition to those that have made it out of the country, there are 11 million people internally displaced within Sudan, most of whom have become displaced since the civil war began in April 2023.
An unnamed senior American official told the Times that the looming famine in Sudan could be as bad as the 2011 famine in Somalia or even the great Ethiopian famine of the 1980s.
In April, Reutersreported that people in Sudan were eating soil and leaves to survive, and The Washington Postcalled it a nation in "chaos," reporting that World Food Program trucks had been "blocked, hijacked, attacked, looted, and detained."
In late June, a coalition of U.N. agencies, aid groups, and governments warned that 755,000 people in Sudan faced famine in the coming months.
The U.S. last week announced $203 million in additional aid to Sudan—part of a $2.1 billion pledge that world leaders made in April, which some countries have not yet delivered on.
Some officials including Thomas-Greenfield, who has dubbed the situation in Sudan "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world," have called for the U.N. Security Council to allow aid delivery into the country even in the absence of SAF approval; it's believed that Russia would veto such a measure.
Sudan's civil war has seen a great deal of international interference. Amnesty International on Thursday published an investigatory briefing showing that weapons from Russia, China, Serbia, Turkey, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had been identified in the country. And The Guardian on Friday reported that the passports of Emirati citizens had been found among wreckage in Sudan, indicating the UAE may have troops or intelligence officers on the ground, though the UAE denied the accusation.
The International Service for Human Rights on Friday warned that both the SAF and RSF were engaged in wrongful killings and arrests, especially targeted at lawyers, doctors, and activists. The group called for an immediate cease-fire.
The SAF and Sudanese government figures have cast doubt on international experts' claims about famine in the country.
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JD Vance Doubles Down on Attack on 'Childless Cat Ladies'
Vance "meant no disrespect to cats, but he did mean to demean women and still holds the view in 2024 that they should be punished for not having children."
Jul 26, 2024
After days of condemnation from critics including actress Jennifer Aniston and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Sen. JD Vance was given the opportunity on Thursday to clarify his remarks from 2021 in which he said the Democratic Party was run by "childless cat ladies."
Instead, the Ohio Republican and running mate of former President Donald Trump assured SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly on "The Megyn Kelly Show" that while he has "nothing against cats," he meant what he said in terms of "the substance" of his argument.
Vance made it clear, said Aaron Fritschner, deputy chief of staff for Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), "that he meant no disrespect to cats, but he did mean to demean women and still holds the view in 2024 that they should be punished for not having children."
The comments in question were made by Vance to then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson when Vance was running for the Senate.
Calling out Buttigieg—who, the secretary disclosed this week, was struggling at the time to adopt a child with his husband—and Vice President Kamala Harris, a stepmother of two and the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee, Vance said people without biological children "don't really have a direct stake in" the future of the country and therefore shouldn't hold higher office.
In separate remarks that same year, Vance said parents should "have more power" at the voting booth and that "if you don't have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you shouldn't get nearly the same voice."
He also specifically categorized people who don't have children as "bad" in an interview in 2021, saying the government should "reward the things that we think are good" and "punish the things that we think are bad," with people taxed at a lower rate if they have children.
While a spokesperson for Vance told ABC News that the senator's taxation proposal was "basically no different" than the child tax credit supported by the Democratic Party, Democrats who have pushed for the credit have heralded its proven ability to slash child poverty rates and help families afford groceries, childcare, and other essentials, rather than viewing the tax savings as a way to reward people for procreating.
In his interview with Kelly on Thursday, Vance attempted to pivot away from his own comments, saying his point was to criticize "the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child" and claiming without evidence that the Harris campaign had "come out against the child tax credit"—a signature policy of the Biden-Harris administration.
"I'm proud to stand for parents and I hope that parents out there recognize that I'm a guy who wants to fight for you," said Vance. "The Democrats, in the past five, 10 years, Megyn, they have become anti-family. It's built into their policy, it's built into the way they talk about parents and children. I don't think we should back down from it, I think we should be honest about the problem."
Vance and Kelly went on to lament the anxiety "hardcore environmentalists" and progressive lawmakers such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have expressed about the damage fossil fuel extraction is doing the planet, accusing them of pushing people to forgo having families—but said nothing about Republican policies that have made child-rearing less accessible.
In recent years, the entire Republican caucus in Congress was joined by conservative then-Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia in blocking the extension of the enhanced child tax credit, which had been credited with cutting the national child poverty rate in half. Republicans also allowed a pandemic-era universal school meal program to expire, while several Democratic-led states have passed state-level programs to ensure all children can have meals at school, regardless of their family's income.
Under Republican abortion bans, numerous stories have cropped up of pregnant people who have been forced to carry pregnancies to term despite finding out that their fetuses had fatal abnormalities and would die soon after birth—as have stories of children who were forced to give birth or had to cross state lines in order to get abortion care.
As with his position that nonparents should be "punished" for not having children, "who else does 'pro-child/family' Vance think should 'face consequences and reality' by way of curtailing choices, rights, and freedoms?" asked writer Alheli Picazo. "Women and girls who become pregnant through rape/incest."
University of North Carolina law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick said that one could test "empirically" Vance's claim that Democratic policies are anti-family.
"But I haven't heard the GOP talk much about things that would help my family and my kids," she said, "like reducing childcare and tuition costs."
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